Saving faith illustrated. Picture this in your mind:
You are in the sea of life on a little boat of yours called good works, religion and morality. The sea is unfriendly, the winds are harsh, dark clouds are hovering over the sky. Suddenly…..suddenly a flash of lightning and then a blast of thunder cracked the sky wide open. Heavy rains are now starting to fall from the sky. And you are sinking….sinking real fast. You are desperate and helpless. You look around and you see all other boats are sinking…….all other boats except one…..the Life Boat called Jesus Christ.
You've heard about this boat before. You’ve heard it preached before. Like the Devil among his fallen angels, you do not question the fact that this is indeed the Life Boat. But it is only now that you see the absolute value, the preciousness and the necessity of this boat…now that you see and realize that your boat is sinking and you can’t do anything about it.
And as you stepped off from your sinking craft, as you are in mid-air going down, one of the two will happen, there’s no turning back now: either the Life Boat will sink or the Life Boat will float, carry you and take you safely home. But there is no fear in your heart. Because you know that the Life Boat is God-ordained. It will never sink. It will take you safely home.
And as expected, as you land in the boat, Lo and Behold, the Life Boat does not sink and is taking you safely home. My friend that jump that you took into the boat is what is meant by the word “faith”. It means to trust or rely or depend or to have confidence.
The sun is a good illustration of the Son.
Just as the sun is the light of this physical world, so is the Son the light of the world in a spiritual sense.
Just as the sun sets and rises again mightily early in the morning and rushes towards a full day at noon displaying its full glory, so the Son also died, was buried and rose mightily the third day and He will come again and display His full glory someday.
Just as the light of the sun is free for all but only those who bask under it experience its light so is the salvation of the Son free for all but only those who receive it by faith will experience salvation.
A man may go to heaven
without health
without wealth
without fame
without a great nature
without learning
without big earning
without culture
without beauty
without friends
without ten thousand other things,
but he can never go to heaven
without Christ.
-Corrie ten Boom
If Christ alone is the Savior then what about those who have never heard of the Good News of Christ's salvation?
Ac 11:12 "Then the
Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six
brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
13
"And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said
to him, 'Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter,
14 'who will tell you words by which you and all your household
will be saved.'
Remember this
principle--->He who is faithful with little will be faithful with
much (see Lu 16:10). Let's apply this principle to the issue at hand.
If God sees you faithful with whatever light He has given you, no
matter how small that light may be, He will make Himself responsible to
reveal to you more light resulting in your salvation. Everyone in the
world has been given light by God. We all have creation to testify about
God's eternal power and Godhood. We all have consciences, no matter how
imperfect, we all have knowledge of right and wrong enough to convict
us that we are sinners helpless and hopeless in ourselves to deliver
ourselves from sin's power.
A native aborigine living in the
jungles of Africa looking up to heaven intuitively knows about God.
Looking within, he knows, to a degree, right from wrong. And in
attempting to live faithfully according to his conscience, he will
realize that the good he knows that he must do and the bad that he knows
he must not do are respectively impossible to keep and avoid perfectly
all the time from the inside out. He will then realize that he is a
sinner in need of deliverance from sin.
And God seeing such a
man, will arrange and orchestrate events and situations in order that
the preacher of the Good News of salvation and the faithful and
convicted sinner will cross paths so that the latter will hear about
Christ and find salvation.
And that's exactly what happened
here (Acts 11: 12-14). God intervened and moved the pieces in the
chessboard that both the convicted sinner (Cornelius) and the messenger
(Peter) will be in the same place at the same time.
Are you faithful to the light that you have? Do you realize that you are a sinner? Have you seen your need of salvation?
Jer 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me
with all your heart.
One time a young man went inside a cave to
end his life. But before he did, he prayed: "God, if there is a God,
reveal yourself to me."
It was a prayer of desperation and
utter need. And the best of prayers come from a strong inward necessity.
He meant business with God. And anyone who takes God seriously, God
will take him seriously. Anyone who means business with God, God will
mean business with him.
Not more than 10 minutes after, a
young man went inside the cave and said: "Mind if I tell you about the
Lord Jesus Christ?"
He shared Christ to him and he repented
and trusted Christ and he got saved!
1Pe 1:19 "...the precious blood of Christ..."
One time a Christian guard was meditating on the preciousness of the blood of Christ while he was in his watch. He was guarding this honeycombed structure made of corridors and many different interconnected passageways.
Suddenly an officer came out of the darkness and demanded from him the password:
"The password?!!?" the officer asked authoritatively.
He was so surprised and startled and overcome that mindlessly he mistakenly blurted out what was on his mind and said: "The precious blood of Christ." And realizing his mistake, he then corrected himself and gave the correct password.
But you know those words ("the precious blood of Christ") winged its way to the inner passageways and corridors and fell on the ears of a sinner having soul trouble somewhere in that place. He was convicted of his sin and realized for the first time in his life who he was in God's eyes---a sinner in need of salvation.
He heard those words, trusted in the shed blood of Christ and he got saved right that moment.
That is why I never tire of telling people over and over again that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead for our salvation, in the hopes that some precious soul, having soul trouble, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit would hear this Good News of a message, trust in Christ and find salvation.
My prayer is that God would arrange events and situations that me as a preacher would be placed within earshot with those who are prepared by the Holy Spirit by conviction of sin.
"...seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Mat. 6:33)
Although these words were primarily addressed to the disciples of Christ, God the Holy Spirit has used the truth of these words and applied it to unsaved sinners and led them to salvation by faith in Christ.
Years ago, the great evangelist D.L. Moody was preaching and sharing the way of salvation to sinners. His text was Mat. 6:33: "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
After the meeting, a man came to Mr. Moody and told him:
"You know Mr. Moody, years ago before I left home, my mother put a Bible in my hand and made me promise to attend church every Sunday. I opened the Bible and on the front cover were these words 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
I went to a far away place and I attended church, I kept my promise and the preacher was preaching Mat. 6:33: 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
The next week I went to a different church and the preacher got up and announced his text Mat. 6:33: 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.' But I was filled with excuses and decided to go on with my plans to make a name for myself and be successful in business.
The third Sunday I went to a different church, and what do you think the preacher was preaching about? He was preaching Mat. 6:33: 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
And tonight I still heard from you Mat. 6:33. Do you think God can still forgive me?"
That night the man trusted Christ and was justified (declared righteous) because of what Christ did on the cross.
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
One time a preacher was walking alone in a street and suddenly an impression came to him that said: "Shout out loud 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
There was no one in sight, anyone would feel like a fool shouting those words with no one around. But nonetheless, he did it. He shouted at the top of his voice:
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
But again, the impression came back and told him to say it again. And he shouted it again a second time:
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Six months later, he was back again in that same town endeavoring to share the salvation of Christ to people. He was knocking on doors (it was a door to door evangelism). He went to a house and a dear lady came to answer the door.
He inquired about her spiritual condition. And the lady replied: "Oh, I am a child of God through faith in Christ."
"How did that happen?" he asked
The lady explained: "One day I was in my house. I was deep in conviction of sin. The Spirit of God was plowing me up. And then I heard a voice outside saying: 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'
And I said: "If that's you Lord, say it again." And it came back the second time! 'Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"
That's how she got saved.
